Boat cover support



Oct. 23, 1962 C. R. IPSE N BOAT COVER SUPPORT 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 14, 1961 Inventor Charles R. Ipsen ,@Mwu&MgI ZZ&ZM,

fi-ttornegs Oct. 23, 1962 c, |P5EN 3,059,659

BOAT COVER SUPPORT Filed July 14, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Inventor g Charles R. Ipsen.

M /l'wl wm ornels 3,059,659 BOAT COVER SUPPORT Charles R. Ipsen, 1085 Des Plaines, Des Plaines, Ill. Filed July 14, 1961, Ser. No. 124,113 Claims. (Cl. 1356) This invention relates generally to boat covers and specifically to means for supporting and assuring proper slope of canvas covers used for small power-driven pleasure boats.

Most small pleasure boats of the power-driven type are made with a windshield extended across the boat just forwardly of the passenger compartment or cockpit, and it is the practice of many owners to utilize a canvas cover for such boats in order to enable the boats to be stored outside. These canvas covers extend from the front to rear of the boat over the windshield, and in those instances where an outboard motor is mounted on the stern of the boat, these covers often have an integral hood that encloses the motor. Covers of this type are held in place by snap fasteners about the edge of the cover, and which are engaged with complement'al fasteners that are provided about the edges of the boat.

Canvas covers of the aforesaid character have a down ward slope forwardly and rearwardly from the windshield which constitutes the highest element of the boat that must be covered, but it is found that when the cover becomes wet, it often tends to sag and lose the necessary slope that is required for proper drainage, and a body of water is then collected in any sagging or depressed areas of the cover. This collected body of water in many instances becomes fairly large and heavy, and it often happens that the weight is suflicient to tear the canvas cover, usually at the rear end or stern of the boat where the main body of the cover is joined with the pocket that encloses the outboard motor.

Efforts to avoid this result in the past have been in a large measure unsatisfactory. One expedient that has been tried is the provision of upwardly bowed stays or supports that were placed in position beneath the cover rearwardly of the windshield of the boat, and these upwardly bowed stays have required the mounting of sockets on the inside of the boat so that the supporting stay or bow could be placed removably in position when the cover was to be put in place. These supporting bows or stays have been considered objectionable because of the necessity for the mounting of special sockets within the cockpit of the boat, and in addition, it is found that unless the bow or stay is located accurately in a vertical plane, and perhaps for other reasons, there is a tendency for the weight of any collected water to tip the supporting stay and eventually cause breakage thereof.

In view of the foregoing it is the primary object of the present invention to simplify the attainment of proper drainage in respect to canvas boat covers of the aforesaid type, and it is a further and related object to enable this to be accomplished through the use of means that are simple and economical in structure and which may be utilized without the necessity for making modifications in or additions to the structure of the boat.

Other and related objects of this invention are to provide means for supporting canvas boat covers in a proper and efficient draining relation on a boat, and to accomplish this by means that may be readily stored in a compact relationship. More specifically, it is an object of this invention to provide an adjustable supporting means for canvas boat covers whereby the proper supporting and draining relationship may be attained in boats of different sizes, and a related object is to provide a strap-like supporting means which may be associated with the usual front and rear davits on a boat to cooperate with the windshield in supporting a canvas boat cover in an efficient water-shedding form over the boat.

Other and further objects of the present invention will be apparent from the following description and claims, and are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, which, by way of illustration, show preferred embodiments of the pre'esent invention and the principles thereof, and what is now considered to be the best mode in which to apply these principles. Other embodiments of the invention embodying the same or equivalent principles may be used and structural changes may be made as desired by those skilled in the art without departing from the invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a top perspective view of a boat having a cover supporting device of this invention in position thereon;

FIG. lAis a detail view of a part of the device;

FIGS. 2, 3, and 4 are schematic transverse cross sectional views taken substantially and respectively along the lines 2-2, 33, and 4-4 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. -1 and showing an alternative form of the supporting device in position on a boat;

FIG. 6 is a side view of the structure of FIG. 5 with a canvas cover in place thereon; and

FIG. 7 is a detail view of a part of the ing device of 'FIG. 5. 1 g

For purposes of disclosure the invention is herein illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 4 as embodied in a cover-supporting device It and in FIGS. 5 and 6 as embodying an alternative form of cover supporting device 110, and by the use of the device 10 or a canvas boat cover 12 may be supported in a properly draining relatin over a boat such as the boat 15 of FIGS. 1 to 4, or the boat of FIGS. 5 and 6.

The supporting device 10 is shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 in its position of use on a boat 15 having an outboard motor 20 suspended at the stern thereof. The boat 15 has the usual depressed cockpit 21 rear-wardly of a windshield 22, and also has rear davits 23- at the opposite sides of the stern and has forward davits 24 at oppposite sides of the front deck and another forward daw't 25 that is centrally located on the front deck just forwardly of the windshield 22.

The cover-supporting device 10 is made primarily from woven canvas webbing or strap material that is cut and sewn together in a novel form and relationship which adapts the device for ready association with the elements of the boat and particularly the several davits and the windshield to assure support of the cover in an eflicient draining relation. Thus the device 10 has a center strap 30 having a length equal to about one half of the length of the cockpit of the boat 15, and right and left hand rear anchoring straps 31 of a length substantially greater than the center strap 30 have their opposite ends secured as by sewing to the center strap 30 near its opposite ends.

COVBI' support- The forward end 30F or the center strap extends a short distance forwardly from the points of attachment of the straps 31, and as shown in FIG. 1A, a buckle 32 is secured to the end 30F as by a sewn loop formed in the end 30F. The buckle 32 has the rear end of a forward tightening strap 33 extended adjustably therethrough and at its other or forward end the tightening strap 33 has a loop 33L formed thereon as by sewing.

The supporting device 10 that is thus provided may be quickly and easily put in place on the boat 15 in its operative relation of FIG. 1. Thus, the right and left hand rear straps 31 are looped respectively over the right and left hand rear davits 23, while the loop 33L is hooked over the forward center davit 26, and the strap 33 is then tightened by adjusting the strap 33 with respect to the buckle 32. This pulls the center strap 30 forwardly so as to tighten the right and left hand straps 31 into a generally triangular relation, and this serves at the same time to tighten the center strap 30. The straps 30, 31 and the strap 33 then slope upwardly and forwardly in a common plane from the rear upper corners of the boat 15 to the point where the strap 33- rests on the windshield 22, and thus the strap 33 and the straps 31 are in position to support the cover 12.

When the cover 12 is put in place its edges are held in position by mating snap fastener elements 35 on the cover 12 and the boat 15, while those portions of the cover 12 rearwardly of the windshield 22 is supported by the strap device 10 so that efficient drainage of the cover 12 is assured. Thus, as illustrated in FIG. 2 of the drawings, the cover 12, adjacent the windshield 22, is supported primarily by the windshield 22 so that it has a gradual lateral slope from the center line of the boat, but in addition, this portion of the cover 12 slopes rearwardly at the slope determined by the strap 33. Beyond the rearwardly turned end edges of the windshield 22, and throughout the rear portion of the strap 33 and the portion 30F, the cover 12 has a strap slope laterally from the supporting strap portions to the edge of the boat, as shown in FIG. 3.

Rearwardly of the portion 30F, the cover 12 is supported in a different sloping arrangement such that those triangular areas located outwardly of the outer portions of the straps 31 slope laterally as shown in FIG. 4, while the balance of the area slopes rearwardly in the plane of the straps 30 and 31. It will be clear therefore that the major portion of the cover 12 rearwardly of the windshield is drained laterally and at a substantial slope while the minor portion of the cover slopes rearwardly and is supported at relatively short intervals by the center strap 30 and the triangularly looped side straps 31.

At the rear end of the boat where the cover is joined to the integral pocket 112 that encloses the motor 20 is normally joined to the cover 12, such joinder is made in a peak-like form as indicated at 112? in FIG. 6, thus to drain the water laterally in this extreme rear area.

Where the windshield of the boat does not possess adequate strength for use with the single forward tightening straps 33 of FIG. 1, the forward tightening means may be provided by a pair of diverging tightening straps 133 as embodied in the supporting device 110 shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. Thus the device 110 has a center strap and right and left hand support straps 31 having the same form and relation as in the device 10, and the center strap has a forward projection 130F to which the rear ends of the tightening straps 133 are secured as by sewing. At their forward ends the straps 133 have their ends looped and sewn to buckle-like adjusting clips 135C that are adjustable along the body of the straps 133 as shown in FIG. 7 to provide adjustable end loops 133L on the straps 133.

The members 31 are looped over the rear davits 23 in the manner hereinbefore described, while the straps 133 are extended in diverging relation over the windshield 22, as shown in FIG. 5 and are looped over the davits 24 4 and tightened. The use of the two straps 133 provides for better distribution of load on the windshield and hence the device may be used in those instances where the windshield lacks the strength required for use of the single strap 33 of the support device 10.

With the cover supporting devices that are thus provided, the right and left hand members 31 provide for ready adaptation of the devices to boats of different sizes, particularly where there is a variation in the width of the stern of the boat. Moreover, the center strap 30 and the right and left hand straps 31 provide for proper support at relatively close intervals in the rear portions of the boat cover where sagging and collection of water is most likely to occur. Moreover, with the supporting devices of the present invention, the major area of the boat cover is drained laterally at a relatively steep slope, and in the rear areas of the cover, a gradual and continuous slope in the cover is assured by reason of the supporting action of the straps 30 and 31. In some instances it is found that an owner may use the supporting strap on a boat that is too narrow for the particular sizing of the strap, and in this event the center strap 30 is drawn forwardly to such an extent that there is considerable unsupported cover area in the triangular area rearwardly of the rear inner portions of the straps 31. To enable the boat owner to take care of such situations the projecting rear end of the strap 30 has a grommet 30G therein from which a rope or the like may be extended rearwardly to the motor 20.

From the foregoing description -it will be apparent that the present invention provides a new and improved supporting device for boat covers, and particularly that the supporting device is simple in character and requires no modification or installation of special structures on the body of the boat. It will also be apparent that because the present supporting device is made up of flexible members such as woven straps, it may be conveniently stored on the boat or in association with the canvas cover.

Thus while preferred embodiments of the invention has been illustrated herein, it is to be understood that changes and variations may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a supporting device for use with power-operated pleasure boats and the like for supporting a canvas boat cover in a proper draining relationship in the areas over the cockpit of the boat, said supporting device comprising an elongated flexible center strap having front and rear ends and of a length approximately equal to one-half the fore to aft length of the cockpit of the boat to be covered, right and left hand anchoring straps of a length substantially greater than the length of the center strap and each having its opposite ends attached to the front and rear ends of the center strap, said right and left hand anchoring straps forming rear anchoring loops adapted to be looped respectively over the rear davits at opposite sides of the stern of a boat, and elongated flexible strap means connected to the front end of said center strap and adapted to be extended forwardly over he windshield of a boat and to be anchored on davit means on the boat forwardly of the windshield to tension said center strap, the anchoring loops and the flexible strap means into a plane sloping rearwardly from the windshield to the rear davits of the boat.

2. A supporting device according to claim 1 wherein said flexible strap means comprises a single flexible tightening strap with an anchoring loop at its forward end, and wherein a buckle is fixed on the forward end of the center strap and in which the rear end of said tightening strap is associated with said buckle for tensioning the device in its posit-ion of use on a boat.

3. A supporting device accordingto claim 1 wherein said flexible strap means comprises a pair of tightening straps fixed at their rear ends to the forward end of the 5 center strap, and wherein said tightening straps have means providing adjustable anchoring loops at their forward ends.

4. A supporting device according to claim 1 wherein said flexible strap means comprises a single tightening strap connected at its rear end to the forward end of the center strap and wherein means are associated with said tightening strap for tensioning the device in its position of use on a boat.

5. A supporting device according to claim 1 wherein 10 2,542,586

' 6 said flexible strap means comprises a pair of tightening straps fixed at their rear ends to the forward end of the center strap, and wherein said tightening straps have means associated therewith for tensioning the device in 5 its position of use on a boat.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Von Tell Nov. 16, 1926 Skjeveland Feb. 20, 1951 

